May 2008 Archives

I like to make a batch of waffles every few weekends. The leftovers go in the freezer for quick breakfasts throughout the week. I use the recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, although I rarely follow it exactly. I always add nutmeg and cinnamon (freshly ground nutmeg is one of my top ten favorite smells, along with freshly ground coffee beans - nothing beats freshly ground), and I usually add some wheat germ or switch out some of the flour for whole wheat. This time around I made the buttermilk variation because I just so happened to have some buttermilk leftover from the birthday cake I made for my brother yesterday. I also substituted some of the oil for flaxseed oil.


» Recipe for Buttermilk Waffles

I brought a quadruple batch of this salad to my brother's birthday BBQ yesterday and it was really good. The recipe is from epicurious (which says it's from the May 2008 issue of Bon Appetit and I have that issue and it isn't in there). The only thing I changed was skipping the hazelnut oil because it was pretty expensive and it's not something that I need to have around otherwise. I did buy the flaxseed oil because of its health benefits (omega-3s) and I plan to use it the next time I make granola.

» View Recipegranola.

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I'm always on the lookout for recipes that use yogurt because I make my own and I always have some around. I've never used it as a marinade though, so when I saw this recipe from Simply RecipesSimply Recipes I knew I would have to try it. Very good. I served it with garlicky sautéed spinach and Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend.


» Recipe for Moroccan Spiced Grilled Chicken Breasts

This was so good with the grilled mojo porkmojo pork. I think it would also be great in pork soft tacos, with jerk chicken, or just scooped up with tortilla chips.


» Recipe for Mango-Pineapple Salsa

Very flavorful and juicy. We had it with corn on the cob (which was still finishing on the grill at this point). The recipe for the marinade came from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. I've had it bookmarked for a while now but this is the first chance I've had to make it. I'm glad it didn't disappoint!


» Recipe for Mojo Pork

This was really tasty. I found some meat at the grocery store that was already thinly sliced so I figured it would be perfect for another stir-fry. I used the same sauce as the beef and asparagus stir-frybeef and asparagus stir-fry, although I should have made twice as much of it for the amount of vegetables I put in. At the end I just threw in some more of the sauce ingredients and it turned out well. In the recipe below I've doubled the sauce ingredients.


» Recipe for Beef and Broccoli Stir-fry

I made this on Monday and forgot to post about it. I got the recipe from Simply RecipesSimply Recipes, but switched out the thyme and rosemary for fresh tarragon, since I had some left over from the halibuthalibut. Delicious, very lemony. But really, I don't think you can go wrong with baked chicken thighs. If they're cooked to the right temp they're bound to be great.


» Recipe for Lemon-Tarragon Chicken

Pretty good. Next time I'll slice the wedges thinner and make sure they get nice and golden before I try to turn them. Maybe a lower oven temp like 375°F and longer roasting time would be better too.


» Recipe for Roasted Potato Wedges

These were good, but could have used a bit more teriyaki sauce. Next time I would brush the burgers with more sauce while they're on the grill. We cooked them on the George Foreman tonight so a lot of the juices ran out.


» Recipe for Teriyaki Turkey Burgers

Made some more burger buns from my new potato bread recipepotato bread recipe. I made the changes that I talked about last timelast time. I brushed the rolls with milk right after shaping them, and I think they might have turned out better if I had waited until right before baking them. I also sprinkled them with sesame seeds and I think it's a nice touch.

These are much better than my other burger bunsmy other burger buns - softer and moister.


» Recipe for Potato Rolls

I based this recipe on my Honey Wheat BreadHoney Wheat Bread, using elements of Beth's Potato Bread from A Year in Bread. It turned out very good, but there are a few changes I would make next time.

First of all, I ended up needing more all-purpose flour than I expected, so next time I would start out with more white whole wheat flour. I would also cut down on the liquid by 1/4 cup to compensate for the wet potatoes. That would help cut down on the all-purpose flour as well. I think a good idea would be to start out with maybe 7 or 8 oz of white whole wheat flour, cut out the first instance of bread flour, then replace the all-purpose flour with bread flour, as needed.

The next change I would make, for individual rolls anyway, would be to brush the tops with an egg or milk wash. When I formed these I made them flatter so they wouldn't be as tall as the last ones I madelast ones I made. They turned out pretty well.

This recipe made 1 lb 14 oz of dough. I formed 1 1/2 lbs of it into a loaf, and with the extra I made two 3 oz rolls. I think that making the above changes to the liquid and flour amounts it would make the proper amount of dough for a single loaf.


» Recipe for White Whole Wheat Potato Bread

» Recipe for Home Fries

I got this recipe from epicurious, although I made so many alterations that it's barely the same recipe. The original didn't have soy sauce or garlic, and it didn't have you marinate the meat, which I think made a huge difference in flavor and texture. I've noticed that a lot of the recipes on epicurious are pretty bland if followed exactly. I always read the reviews first.

Sesame-ginger is one of my favorite flavor combinations. This dish was very yummy. So yummy that I'm adding it to the recipe archiverecipe archive after only making it once. The nuttiness of the brown rice paired very well with the stir-fry. This could have been garnished with toasted sesame seeds but I didn't think of it until later. The original recipe recommended serving this with a cucumber, red bell pepper, and sweet onion salad with rice wine dressing. Looking back, I don't think this was really necessary. You already have your protein, vegetable, and starch in one dish. The salad was good though, even though the red onion I bought to add to it turned out to be rotten in the middle (eww). The dressing was improvised and I've posted the approximated amounts below.


» Recipe for Sesame-ginger Beef and Asparagus Stir-fry

I had some yogurt that I needed to use up so I thought I'd make some frozen yogurt. I had to pick up a couple things from Trader Joe's so I looked for some flavor inspiration while I was there. I found a bag of frozen mango pieces that was pretty cheap so I stuck that in my basket. But then, as I was standing in the checkout line I saw a display of fresh organic strawberries on sale that I just couldn't pass up.

After straining my yogurt overnight I was left with about a cup. Not sure how much sugar I should add to it, I looked up the frozen yogurt recipe on 101 cookbooks. The recipe (which originally came from The Perfect Scoop) has a 4:1 ratio of strained yogurt to sugar, so that's what I used. I also added a bit of sugar to the diced strawberries to bring out the juices.

I really like the strawberry and mango flavors together. I would still like to try this with only mango though.


» Recipe for Strawberry-Mango Frozen Yogurt

Very tasty, although a tad dry. I used extra lean ground beef so the burgers weren't as juicy as they could have been. The flavor was really good though. As for the buns, I used the same recipe that I used for dinner rollsdinner rolls, making 1/2 a recipe and forming it into 6 rolls. I made sure not to bake them too long, but I wish I had formed them so they were flatter. I could probably make 8 rolls out of this recipe if they weren't so tall. I used white whole-wheat flour for the first time and I think it's pretty cool.


» Recipe for BBQ Burgers and Homemade Buns

I roasted a chicken this week. We ate the legs for dinner that night, and the rest of the meat I chopped up and used to make this pot pie filling. I made stock with the bones and used it in the filling as well. Good stuff. This is how my mom always makes "pot pie" - with a biscuit topping. She uses Bisquick, but I make mine from scratch (who needs another box of mix cluttering up the already cluttered cabinets? Not me).

I like to double this recipe and put half of it in the freezer for another time.


» Recipe for Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuit Topping

My new loaf pans arrived this morning, so the only logical thing to do was to test them out. The timing was great because we had eaten the last two slices of bread for breakfast (with eggs over-easy, of course).

It looks and tastes amazing. Nice and soft too. I brushed the top with milk before sprinkling on the oats, hoping that it would "glue" them on, and it seemed to work. In the past, when it was time to take the loaf out of the pan most of the toppings I'd put on just fell right off. I think the milk also contributed to the softer crust.

Oh, and for the record, the new loaf pans were totally worth it.

I'm adding this recipe to the archives, because I seem to be making this version more than the honey wheat bread that it's based on.

» Recipe» Recipe

This was delicious. Matt agrees (although, he's never said that anything I've cooked for him is less than great. Such a sweetheart).

These amounts are estimates because I didn't really measure anything except the seasonings.


» Recipe for Penne with Sausage and White Beans